PA | Defined Terms Indexer FAQ

No, Defined Terms Indexer works with any words or phrases you want to index. It automatically recognizes defined terms (see What is a defined term?) and additionally indexes any words or phrases you specify.

Why is it called Defined Terms Indexer if it indexes any words or phrases?

Defined Terms Indexer automatically finds words and phrases that are enclosed in double quotes, which is how terms are defined in legal documents. Anyone can use Defined Terms Indexer because they can supply their own lists of words and phrases for indexing, even if they’re not defined terms.

What is a defined term?

A “defined term” is any word or phrase that is defined in a document as having a special meaning in that document. For example:

The Licensee may use this Software for 14 days free of charge (the “14 day trial period”).

In the above sentence “14 day trial period” is a defined term.

For Defined Terms Indexer to automatically find and list a defined term, it has to be enclosed in double quotation marks at least once in a document.

Why can’t I use single quotes around my defined terms?

There is no way for Defined Terms Indexer to differentiate an apostrophe from a close quote. Say you have a defined term Purchaser’s Agent. If it’s enclosed in single quotes (’Purchaser’s Agent’) Defined Terms Indexer would see Purchaser as a defined term because it’s enclosed in single quotes and then assume the single quote after Agent was the start of another defined term. However if you enclose the term in double quotes (“Purchaser’s Agent”) then Defined Terms Indexer correctly recognizes Purchaser’s Agent as being a defined term.

Do defined terms have to be enclosed in double quotes everywhere they appear in my document?

No. They will be indexed wherever they appear provided they are selected for indexing in the Terms found in document list.

Do I have to bold face my defined terms?

No. Defined terms only have to be enclosed in double quotes to be recognized. However if your document includes quoted material that is also enclosed in double quotes then you might want to bold face your defined terms so that Defined Terms Indexer doesn’t assume that the quoted material is a defined term and include it in the list of terms to be indexed.

Do my defined terms have to be bold faced everywhere they appear in my document?

No. They only have to be bold faced (and enclosed in double quotes) once to be recognized as a defined term. They’ll be indexed no matter how or where they appear in the document.

What if I don’t want to bold face my defined terms but I also have quotations in my document?

You can select and deselect individual terms or groups of terms in the Terms found in document list.

What happens if I use double quotes for inches?

If your document includes measurements in feet and inches using double quotes as the inches indicator (eg 1’9” for 1 foot 9 inches), you may run into difficulties because Defined Terms Indexer might think the double quote inches indicator is an open quote. You should replace all double quotes that you are using as inches indicators with something else before running Defined Terms Indexer.

How do I index words and phrases that aren’t defined terms?

You can provide your own list of words and phrases to index any time you want, either by typing them into the Defined Terms Indexer dialog box or loading a saved list of words and phrases. You can deselect anything or everything that might appear in the Terms found in document list: anything that isn’t selected won’t be indexed.

How can I create a re-usable list of words and phrases for indexing?

You can save any or all of the words and phrases in your Add terms for indexing list to a text file. See the instructions for more information.

Also, you can create a plain text document (with the extension *.txt) and put each word/phrase on a separate line:

munchkins
Lion
Scarecrow
wicked witches
Tin Man
characters in the Wizard of Oz

They don’t have to be alphabetized – Defined Terms Indexer will alphabetize them for you. Save the text document and then you can load that list into Defined Terms Indexer’s Add terms for indexing list anytime you want by clicking on the Load saved list button. See the instructions for more information.

Remember: you have to save the list as a text document with the extension *.txt. You can’t load a Word document (*.doc) into the Add terms for indexing list.

Problems

I don’t want a list of not used / not found terms in my index.

Make sure the Index not used terms and/or the Index not found terms checkboxes (as appropriate) are not ticked on the Index options tab. Click the Set as defaults and reset form button to have those checkboxes cleared by default.

None of my defined terms are appearing in the Terms found in document list.

Make sure each of your defined terms are enclosed in double quotes at least once in your document. Also check whether your terms are bold faced are not and whether the Defined terms in bold checkbox is ticked under Search options . If that option is ticked but your defined terms are not bold faced in your document they won’t show up in the Terms found in document list – in that case either untick the Defined terms in bold checkbox or bold face your defined terms where they are defined (ie bold face and enclose them in double quotes).

A lot of text appears in the Terms found in document list and I don’t want to index it.

Defined Terms Indexer includes anything it finds between double quotation marks in the Terms found in document list. If you don’t want to index quoted material there’s a couple of things you can do:

Deselect anything you don’t want to index – Defined Terms Indexer indexes whatever is selected in the Terms found in document and Add terms for indexing lists. If your document doesn’t contain any defined terms, click the Deselect all button next to the Terms found in document list. Otherwise deselect items you don’t want to index from the list individually.
You can bold face your defined terms wherever they’re defined in the document. Make sure the Defined terms in bold checkbox is ticked and Defined Terms Indexer will only include words and phrases that are bold faced and in double quotes in the Terms found in document list. The Defined terms in bold checkbox is located on the Search options tab.

How do I change my search options so they’re the default settings?

Set your options they way you want and click the Set as defaults and reset form button. Your settings will be saved as the default settings for the next time you use Defined Terms Indexer.

Word hangs (stops responding) while Defined Terms Indexer is indexing my footnotes – why?

Defined Terms Indexer itself will not cause Word to stop responding. However very rarely Word can stop responding because of bugs in Word and damaged documents.

Your document may be unstable. Word documents can become corrupt or unstable over time. If you have Word 2003, try flushing your document using XML:

open your document in Word
save it in .xml format ( File > Save as then choose .xml as the file format)
close your document and rename it in file explorer
in Word, open the .xml version you just saved (Word can open .xml documents as if they were .doc documents)
save the .xml document as a .doc document ( File > Save as then choose .doc as the file format)
try indexing your document again

If that doesn’t work, there are other ways to try to repair document corruption. See the following Microsoft KnowledgeBase article:

How to troubleshoot damaged Word documents
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826864/en-us

Microsoft has acknowledged a Word bug related to indexing footnotes. For more information see the following Microsoft KnowledgeBase article:

WD2000: Word Stops Responding When You Mark Index Entries
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211389/en-us

Even though that article refers to Word 2000 it may also apply to later versions of Word. That article suggests breaking the document up and indexing the various parts, then recombining them. If breaking the document up into chapters for instance allows you to index the individual chapters (including footnotes), then you should continue editing your documents as individual chapters. When you’re ready to go to final you can:

delete the indexes from each of your chapters manually (highlight the index and press the Delete key, don’t use Tools > Defined Terms Indexer > Remove indexing)
copy all your chapters into a single document
update the one remaining index that you did not delete in step 1 above to include all the marked entries in all the chapters; important: you’ll need to update your index using Tools > Defined Terms Indexer > Update index; you don’t re-index using Find and index